Melissa's OMAD experience
gomissfitnes
Posts: 268 Member
I kind of accidentally came to doing OMAD. I was searching and searching for a reason why my efforts to lose some weight wasn't going very well. My research led me to insulin resistance because I had a high reading two years ago. That led me to IF. I started out trying to just fast to see if I could do it and lasted 24 hours. I was originally going to try a 4 hour window and yadda yadda yadda, I'm here. I can't actually eat all I need in one meal. But I can get to about 800 calories before it feels right. Can't seem to stop counting calories. I have no idea what it means to only be eating that, but it's all an experiment at this point. I eat a balanced variety of macros because I'm hesitant to go extreme with one or another. There's a lot of confusing information on the subject. But I've cut sugar and trans fat from my daily diet. So far I feel ok and am monitoring myself for any ill feelings. Getting my blood work done on Monday. I like having a place to put my thoughts and progression. Hopefully I can keep it up.
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Replies
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Welcome aboard, Melissa! Best to you on your wonderful journey and on OMAD. :-)1
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Welcome Melissa, You've found a great place here.1
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Welcome Melissa! We are here to support you! Happy OMADing!1
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Welcome!1
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Well thank you everyone! I like the idea of having a place to journal as I figure this out.
I almost caved today but I happened on some youtube videos that kept me going, particularly the one about the first 14 days being an important adjustment period.
I start to think that I could just deviate a little, or have an off day, or just eat out of boredom. But I decided to forget any deviation until the school year starts. Then I will reevaluate where I am and how much more I need to lose and what works with my work schedule.
I'm wondering if eating at work will make me sleepy for the afternoon.
I managed to eat about 100 calories more than I have in the past and finished within an hour, instead of two. I still feel full three hours later. Hmmm. Not sure if I like that.
What I do like:
Learning about my relationship with food.
How often I eat because of reasons other than hunger.
How often I eat because of hunger.
Letting go of constantly feeding myself. Thinking about what mini meals I can have; what mini snacks to appease my hunger.
I'm still learning that it's ok, even better, to tell my body "No, use what you have stored instead."
Hunger is only a minor irritation that goes away eventually, especially when I'm busy.
Feel free to comment on on any similarities you have experienced or any observations.
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Welcome Melissa!!!
This group is awesome with lots of ideas and positive vibes I am sure your journey will be brilliant!
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It doesn't matter when you eat as long as its the best and easiest time for you...For me I like to eat at night because it's when I'm the hungriest and I have all day to think about and plan what I'm going to be eating for my meal...Good luck on your journey 2
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Welcome and good luck. Cutting out sugar is a huge step in the right direction. Also as you adapt to OMAD you will feel that you are in control of what you eat and enjoy your meals even more.1
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Hello and welcome! This is a very supportive and active group. Good luck with your journey.1
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Interesting day. Felt fantastic for most of the day. Lots of energy. My meal was not the greatest. Kind of blah. I don't really enjoy being so full. Can't help feeling strange about that since I've been on a restricted calorie diet, I associate being full to times of failing the diet. So that's interesting. Also, my oldest son came over and they all got Chick Fila. In the past, instead of ordering a meal, I would have their left overs. Ha ha. Seriously, I'm such a scavenger. So I had a few fries. I was hungry and feeling like eating a *kitten* ton of everything. I had about 300 calories of relatively healthy food and some how managed to stop before getting into the ice cream. Fortunately, I managed to take a nap. Upon waking I was very happy I didn't completely blow it. I am working on separating hunger from my emotions. It is a pleasure to eat for sure and I have to enjoy that. But for the moment, I have a goal in mind. A fat loss goal that I can achieve if I can get a handle on eating with abandon and then feeling bad. Pleasure and guilt. Isn't that the story of my life. Anyway, I think fasting does bring me face to face with these types of issues. Nobody is making me do this. This has to stop being an issue of being good or bad. It's just a choice. I appreciate all of the nice comments and kind words above.0
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I don't think you should feel bad for being full. I think it is a blessing to feel full although I can understand why you may feel bad about it. If you don't want to feel full but can't get in the calories in in one short sitting, you might eat over a 3-hr window or so. That is what I did to lose weight. I would eat from about 6-9pm or so. My problem is I love to be full, I love to be stuffed even. I can do that though and stay "topped off" in my eating window (I eat tell full and then graze after) and I still lost weight. It is a balance between being satisfied, not eating too much and not eating too little. Stick with it and experiment a little and you will be able to make it work for you!0
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Thank you for that. I find hearing other people's experiences with food fascinating and it helps me understand my relationship with food. I'm glad to hear that a window worked well for you. I might play with that.0
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Melissa, when I first started OMAD, for the first week I was lucky to get in between 400-900 calories a meal. It's actually normal when adjusting to OMAD; funny, only lost .4 pounds that first week. I started introducing more calories in the second week and have been hitting 1200+ ever since. For me, the absolute best thing about OMAD is that it helped me stop thinking about food all the time. It's like a huge weight was lifted off my shoulders.
I may have veered for like a week and a half because I had that panic about my high cholesterol--not related to OMAD and for all I know my cholesterol may have been higher before I started IF in March and I've brought it down on my own, but ldl was high enough for doctor to order me statins, which I refuse to take. Anyway, just that right there got food on my brain again. It's not been easy to get back to OMAD the past few days. I caved last night and picked at food all day. (Lol. Hey, just keeping it real). I had my meal way too early yesterday. My plan of attack today will be to eat no early than 1pm and no later than 5pm. Eating after 1pm seems to be my sweet spot. Gets me though the rest of the day, perfectly, I have energy for great morning workouts, and I don't get hungry until 2-3 hours before eating again. I like being full, but not food coma full, know what I mean?
Today is a new day, right?! I plan on watching Joe's videos again to help me. Funny how many basics you forget after having done OMAD and then veering off for a bit. 0 -
Ha Ha! I do know what a food coma is! I am glad to find out that you were eating low calorie meals when you first started. It was kind of freaking me out for a while! I'll continue to adjust and just keep going. I want to stick with it long enough for it to be successful. Thanks!0
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gomissfitnes wrote: »Ha Ha! I do know what a food coma is! I am glad to find out that you were eating low calorie meals when you first started. It was kind of freaking me out for a while! I'll continue to adjust and just keep going. I want to stick with it long enough for it to be successful. Thanks!
Lol, you're welcome. I was so freaked out how few calories I was eating that I went to Joe about it. He was so helpful. Of course, I hadn't watched all the videos at that point yet, and sure enough he does go over that in one of them. His videos are so great and helpful and encouraging.
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I was working out pretty hard before I started OMAD and I liked the way I was toning up, despite the lack of fat loss. Now, I have been doing a light workout here and there, getting used to the new changes my body has been dealing with. Today, I was going to walk on the treadmill, just to listen to my music and occupy my evening hours. I quickly got bored with that and ended up doing a pretty decent strength workout. Damn! That felt really good! I think I'm adjusted enough to move a little more! I'm going to make it an evening routine. Nice surprise.
I got my blood work back on the sugar part of the test and it is now down to a normal range instead of pre diabetic. That's good news! I wonder if it's because of my dietary changes. I have a check up tomorrow.2 -
My blood sugar went from pre-diabetic to normal after OMAD and weight loss! Blood pressure went from 14x/9x to usually below 120/80.0
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That's great! I'm on the right track!0
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Welcome Melissa!1
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Wonderful news on your sugar blood work, Melissa!1
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I extended my fast to 4 instead of 11. Surprisingly, the only time I was hungry was in the morning long before 11. I did put cream in my coffee and milk in my tea, which I had both today. I wonder if the calories piqued my hunger. I ate around 1200 calories. I am so full. I just can't see how this will lead to weight loss. I'm afraid it's all going to go straight to stored fat and I'll just spend tomorrow burning off this one meal. I just can't understand how this is going to work.0
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gomissfitnes wrote: »I extended my fast to 4 instead of 11. Surprisingly, the only time I was hungry was in the morning long before 11. I did put cream in my coffee and milk in my tea, which I had both today. I wonder if the calories piqued my hunger. I ate around 1200 calories. I am so full. I just can't see how this will lead to weight loss. I'm afraid it's all going to go straight to stored fat and I'll just spend tomorrow burning off this one meal. I just can't understand how this is going to work.
1200 calories are not much. What is your BMR? It is probably at least 1200. Then if you have done some steps or other activity, you have burned more and you will lose weight.0 -
I hope so. I'm not very tall and all the calculators I've used put my BMR somewhere between 1200 and 1500. I'm going to try and add in a strength work out in the mornings. I'm trying to prep my body to continue OMAD when I return to work in August. I'll be really surprised if I can lose weight feeling as full as I do. That will be a real paradigm shift.0
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I think both milk and cream might cause insulin release which in turn causes hunger. I've switched to black coffee and cut out diet drinks in the fasting period and anecdotally I can say that I'm finding the fasting much easier (that could be the placebo effect, of course...) 0
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And about the 1200 calories - what Bob said!0
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Ok. New plan. Work out in the morning. No milk or cream. No freaking out about being full.0
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Being full is my all time favourite thing about OMAD... I hated never being full on every other diet I've ever been on.1
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True! It is actually very satisfying to finally just eat. I just equate it with cheating or somehow failing.0
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Gotta change the mind set0
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Yeah, I still catch myself thinking that sometimes. Especially when I go out to eat and have fries or something. That kind of freaks me out. But then I still lose weight that week and I'm like, well, whaddaya know, those fries didn't magically cause me to gain 20lbs overnight. Huh!
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